The International Monetary Fund in March 2009 urged Dominica to prioritize capital spending and to broaden its tax base in order to maintain an overall fiscal surplus in a tougher global environment. The government indicated that it would aim for a target of 3% of GDP, which was not an easy goal to achieve under current conditions.

Opposition parties protested in March in the capital, Roseau, demanding electoral reform, including what they called a “clean” voters list. The United Workers Party claimed in June that Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit was stalling efforts to implement voter identification cards prior to the general election that was due in October 2010. On November 19, however, during Skerrit’s address to the country, he announced that the elections would be held on December 18. In the balloting the Dominica Labour Party scored a landslide, with 16 seats in the parliament, while the United Workers Party secured only 4 seats. The landslide was seen as a confirmation of Skerrit’s mandate to promote the country’s natural resources.

Following several years in which Dominica and other smaller Caribbean states had voted alongside Japan to overturn the International Whaling Commission’s (IWC’s) ban on commercial whale hunting—which had caused critics to suggest that Japan was “buying” their vote with aid—Prime Minister Skerrit insisted that he was a convert to environmental preservation. In 2008 Dominica had abstained from the vote at the IWC’s annual meeting, and Skerrit announced in March 2009 that Dominica would no longer support Japan’s efforts to reestablish commercial whaling. That same month Dominica reaffirmed its position in another controversial matter, recognizing China over Taiwan, the latter of which still found favour among a few Caribbean states. Dominica had switched its allegiance in 2004.